PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8494, 25 July 1907, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

(Abridged from Press Association Report.)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. WELLINGTON, July 24. The House met at 2.30 p.m. Mr W. Fraser resumed the debate on the Financial Statement. He said that the Minister of Lands had last night stated that members opposing the land proposals were friends of the big man and enemies of the small man, but that statement did not trouble him, and he was sure it would not trouble those who sent him to represent them. Me maintained that to give a man the freehold was to encourage him and the freeholder to do more with his land than under any other tenure. Mr F. M. B. Fisher complained of the involved state of the Financial Statement, and compared it with that of the late Mr Ballance in 1891. He said that since 1891 not a single Financial Statement had been issued which was so lucid and easily explained. He stated that since 1902 the permanent appropriations had been increasing from £2,434,480 to £3,079,079. When the late Premier came into office the indebtedness of the colony was £37,000,000. It had now increased by £22,328,000. The indebtedness per head had increased from £6O 5s 8d to £67 0s lid. He compared the present state'of affairs in the colony with the finances of Victoria, which, since the drought, had reduced its debt by over a million. He would like the Premier to explain why, in the face of the yearly increasing surpluses, it was necessary to go to the London market to float loans. He contended that the Government made concessions where they should not be given. Rebates had been given to farmers which should not have been given. A sum of £21,000 was given last year in postal concessions, and now it was proposed to give £20,000 in further postal concessions which had never been asked for. Then the sheep tax was to be remitted, which was never asked for. A Member: The Farmers' Union asked for it. Mr Fisher: Yes, and they asked for the freehold and got it, or are going to get it. Referring to the Midland railway line he said he could take any f". .-•_' ... jmbers of the House over that line, and they would agree that the expenditure on the line was a most criminal waste of public money. Some of the land; through which the line passed would not carry a sheep to 640 square miles. Referring to. the finances and public accounts he said it was not possible for any member of the House to obtain information concerning the public accounts of the colony except by means of a Royal Commission. He added that the only means a member had of getting access to a particular document was by making a specific charge against a public official. Mr D. Buddo complained that it was still a fact that the roads in the country were bad. He thought it was better, before the settler was allowed to go on the land at all, that the ro'-ids should be made. Referring to native lands he said that the settlement of the same was going on at too small a rate owing in a measure to the fact that many of the natives themselves were averse to parting with their lands. He realised that the Commission was doing excellent work, but he was sure that there were large areas of native land which would be difficult to deal with. In Hokianga he had found a large area of 500,000 acres in one block, and he suggested that this valuable land shoufd be divided in alternate blocks for closer settlement, and at the same time allow of the natives paying rates and taxes. Touching on tariff matters, he urged that lighter slippers should be allowed to come into the colony free, especially as they could not be profitably made in the colony. Turning to the flour duty, he said that not possible to grow wheat profitably at less than 3s per bushel. He advocated granting protection up to 4s per bushel, but contended that a prohibitive du v y should be placed on foreign flour. Mr W. H. P. Barber considered that the Government should set the example in the erection of public buldings. He differed from Mr Fisher hi that he considered the Midland railway was one of the most important lines in the colony, and the mineral country through which it passed alone was sufficient to warrant the Government pushing on with the line. The House adjourned at 5.30 p.m. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m. Mr Barber, resuming his speech, urged that an ad valorem and weight duty should be placed on shoddy material, which would have the effect of reducing the quantity of shoddy entering the colony, and would assist in the development of the colony's woollen industry. He cont nded that in placing a duty on raw cotton they would prevent colonial manufacturers supplying a good, cheap material composed of new wool mixed with a little cotton, which was a good article, and competed with shoddy. The latter contained no new wool, but only old and adulterated material. He urged that unless the industry received a little protection the worker in the colony would be brought to the same" level as the sweated worker in the Old Country. Mr J. C. Thomson advocated the better payment of teachers and the placing of the teachers' superannuation fund on a mere sound basis. He characterised the Budget as a business one, and commended the Postmaster - General for the concessions granted. He advocated the State lending working miners money in the same manner as money was lent to settlers under the Advances to Sattlers Act. Such a concession would result in the development of the mineral wealth. Mr J. McLachlan considered that the Leader of the Opposition's criticism of the Budget Speech was a bit washy, whilst the member for Bruce in criticising the railway revenue showed that he was not up to date. He did not agree with the Government in all the remissions of taxa-

tion proposals, and was particulary I opposed to the remission of the sheep | tax. i Mr C. H. Iza»*d suggested that the Minister of Customs should bring down legislation to enable him in the case of necessity to take the duty off the necessaries of life. Referring to the proposed postal concessions he did not think that the majority of people were going to gain anything. Referring to the mail service via Suez he urged that negotiations should be entered into with the Union Company to delay the steamer leaving Sydney on Saturday until Monday, and thus enable the English mail to be delivered in Wellington on Thursday night or Friday morring, representing a gain of five days. He agreed with the proposals set forth for dealing with the restriction of Chinese entering the colony, and instanced the test recently enforced in Australia, when the Customs authorities applied to what they considered an undesirable immigrant a test in the Greek language. Such a test if enforced in this colony would prove effectual in restricting the entry of Chinese. Referring to the Land Bill he advocated the leasehold system with a 33 years lease, which was sufficiently Jong. The lease should contain provision for the perpetual right of renewal. The Premier rose to reply at 11.15 p.m. He said that the criticism so far as it had gone had not disclosed any weakness in the Financial Statement. The Government had never experienced any difficulty in meeting loans as they became due and never would. The million loan was to be borrowed not in England but in New Zealand. Time arid again money had been offered in Australia at a good premium, and there was no need to go to England for the loan. The same people who complained about the Government borrowing money were always' endeavouring to procure votes for the erection of large public buildings in their own constituencies-